SWEDISH POLICE WANTS TO CROSS THE BORDER
The national police board (Rikspolisstyrelsen, RPS) wishes to station more Swedish police officers abroad in order to control and prevent illegal immigration into Sweden. Three police officers have already been dispatched to Syria and the Unitea Arab Emirates, among others. Now the RPS demands the stationing of further officers in Estonia and Portugal and urges the government to name a police attaché in charge of developing cooperation with the police structures of the EC-countries.
The demands are made in the RPS' budget request. The police demands for additional 3 million Swedish crowns destined for combatting illegal immigration.
"The common evaluation of Sweden and the European countries is that the need for special efforts against illegal immigration will last for a long time and that Swedish police must continue its action against illegal immigration into Sweden inside the country as well as out in Europe", writes the RPS.
Moreover the police board believes a contact officer should be stationed in Estonia because of a "worrying increase in crime" in the Baltic states which "strongly affects Swedish interests". According to the Swedish police the Baltic states already function as transit countries for narcotics and stolen goods.
Portugal too is considered as such a transit country mainly with respect to drug trafficking from other continents and particularly South America.
"In Portugal tourism from Sweden and the other Nordic countries is increasing and Portugal has become very attractivefor criminal activities which affect Swedish and nordic interests. This is true not only for drug related crime but also for business crimes.
Very much in line with EC-calls for compensatory policing measures in the wake of the abolition of internal border controls the RPS demands for increased internal control of "foreigners and of various forms of illegal transactions between countries which in the future can no longer be stopped at the border any longer".
Moreover, the RPS demands a larger number of policemen in view of an expected rise of the crime rate as a result of high unemployment in the nineties.
Source: Svenska Dagbladet, 31.8.92